ASCI / Young Physician-Scientist Awards, 2026

Samir Zaidi, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor and Stephen Sherwin MD Investigator at Yale School of Medicine.  A physician–scientist specializing in genitourinary cancers, he leads a laboratory at the Yale Cancer Center’s Center for Molecular and Cellular Oncology (CMCO).  His lab investigates the mechanisms of oncologic progression, with a particular focus on lineage plasticity and stromal–immune interactions.  Dr. Zaidi earned his B.S. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, conducting research at the Whitehead Institute in the Jaenisch lab on the transcriptional regulation of pluripotency.  He obtained his M.D. Cum Laude and Ph.D. with Distinction from Yale University in 2016.  His doctoral research in Richard Lifton’s lab identified de novo mutations in chromatin–modifying genes as causes of congenital heart disease and neurodevelopmental disorders––findings published in Nature, Science and Nature Genetics. Following internal medical residency in the Stanbury Physician–Scientist Track at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Dr. Zaidi completed his Medical Oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC).  During his fellowship in the Sawyers Lab and as an Assistant Attending at MSKCC, he investigated the mechanisms of lineage plasticity underlying therapeutic resistance in prostate cancer.  His work revealed that plasticity progresses through a JAK:FGFR–high state-–a finding published in Science and PNAS––offering a rational for combinatorial JAK and FGFR inhibition, which is now being evaluated in an early–phase clinical trial.  Dr. Zaidi has received multiple honors, including Early Career Awards from the Prostate Cancer Foundation, Department of Defense, and ASCO; the Gerstner Physician–Scientist Scholar Award; an NCI K08 award; and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award for Medical Scientists (CAMS).  His current research seeks to uncover early regulators of lineage plasticity and the tumor–promoting stroma that fosters immune evasion, with the overarching goal of improving outcomes for patients with advanced genitourinary cancers.